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Great, just what I needed to hear. My friendship with Ben wasn’t the only thing that got screwed up that night.
“Can you ask Duncan if I can have Seb’s number, please? I need to get in touch with Ben. It’s kind of urgent.”
“Urgent? Is everything okay? You’re not pregnant, are you?”
That’s the second time I’ve been asked that this week. “No, but I owe Ben some money and he refuses to give me his bank details so I can pay him back. He hasn’t replied to my texts and he isn’t at his place.”
“Lainey...” Cass starts.
“What?”
“Considering how he was before you guys started sleeping together, don’t you think it’s likely... you know, that he’s gone back to sleeping with a different woman every night?”
My throat closes over at the thought, causing me to sound like something out of Star Wars as I gasp for breath.
“Lainey?”
I thought he kept picking up women to the weekend, but maybe that’s all changed now. Maybe, after sleeping with me for three or four weeks straight, he needs a whole lot more variety. Where else could he be tonight? I know he never brings women here, but that doesn’t mean he’s not at some other woman’s house.
My heart feels like it’s breaking all over again knowing Cass is more than likely right. And yet I still have to know he’s okay. Just because it’s all over between us doesn’t mean I can just forget about him or stop worrying about him.
“Please, can you just talk to Seb and Duncan and ask them to call Ben so I know he’s all right?”
“I’ll see what I can do, or perhaps I can get Duncan or Seb to insist Ben pass along the details to you.”
Right, the bank details. Because that’s really why I came here, isn’t it? He still hasn’t given them to me.
“Yeah, okay. Thanks. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Hey,” she says, stopping me from hanging up. “What are you doing this weekend?”
My first weekend without Ben is coming up.
“I haven’t made plans yet.”
“Do you want to go and see a movie? Just the two of us?”
“What’s Duncan doing?”
“He and Seb are going to Barnaby’s, but I’m not going to go—”
“I’m in,” I say. “I’ll come to Barnaby’s.”
“Lainey—”
“Cass, I quit my job when Lucas and I broke up because I couldn’t face him. You want me to be stronger this time? Well, this is me being stronger.”
She sighs, knowing I’ve already made up my mind. “Fine, we’ll go to Barnaby’s on Saturday night.”
I don’t know how long I’ll stay for. I hate feeling like a third wheel. But I have to see Ben, and he might just turn up if Seb and Duncan are there. And for some stupid and ridiculous reason, I have to know if Ben is back to his old ways. Because it will make it easier to move on when I know, won’t it?
***
On Saturday night,I spend hours on my hair and make-up, and promise myself I’ll handle it by leaving Barnaby’s the moment Ben starts flirting with some woman.
But he never comes.
I can’t believe it when one hour rolls by, then another, and I’m still sitting with Cass and Duncan, drinking my white wine and watching Seb flirt with two attractive and single ladies. For the first time in history, I wish Ben was here, flirting with the women at the bar.
